Greenbelly's $75 Partner Giveaway Drew 4,178 Entrants

4,178 Entrants, No Ad Spend

Greenbelly put $75 of its own meals into a partner giveaway and spent nothing on ads. 4,178 people entered, each signing in with their email.

We recommend spending at least 70% of your build time on a promotion plan.

Visit Greenbelly

Three Trips, One Meal Problem

Chris Cage quit the corporate world in 2012 to backpack 10,000km through Asia, cycle 3,000km around New Zealand, then hike the Appalachian Trail back home in the USA.

He struggled to find trail food with proper nutrients.

Out of this need Chris founded Greenbelly. They offer pre-packaged meals that provide 1/3 of your daily nutritional requirements (Calories, Carbs, Protein, Sodium, Fats and Fiber), and can be carried easily in your backpack.

A $750 Prize Pack From Partner Brands

Chris wanted product awareness without paying for ads.

He asked as many similar brands as he could to put a product into the prize.

Pooling prizes would let him:

• Increase the overall prize value.

• Make the prize package more desirable by including multiple products from different vendors.

• Increase the campaign’s reach, since partners would promote it too

• Get his product on the larger stage beside some of the more reputable brands.

• Get more eyes from his potential target market on Greenbelly.

Chris signed up other brands, taking the prize from $75 of Greenbelly meals to $750 of gear.

Entrants had two Actions to complete. With Login First, 47.7% of the 8,750 people who saw the widget entered.

After signing in, Entrants saw the Viral Share Action, which opens on its own when it’s the last Action left in the widget.

8,750 Impressions, 47.7% Converted

Greenbelly used no social Actions. Every Entrant signed in with email, then got a link to refer friends.

The widget had 8,750 Impressions and 4,178 Entrants, a 47.7% Conversion Rate.

We have run several Gleam giveaway campaigns now which have, overall, grown our email list to 10,000. That email list has been fundamental in growing sales. The main goal with the email list is to provide subscribers with value and build trust. It could be a special off, discount, promotion or a sneak peek at something we are working on. We have also started created content and sharing it with our email list which has led to a 500% traffic increase a 50% sales increase.

Chris Cage, Founder, Greenbelly

Key Growth Takeaways

Find Partners Who Share Your Buyers

Partners put your giveaway in front of their customers at no cost to you.

We have a pretty good idea of the kind of brands we like working with. They need to 1) create reputable products 2) be in the similar outdoor space 3) be non-competitive.

Chris Cage, Founder, Greenbelly

Consider products or services that complement your own, or if you’re a local business see if you can partner with other local businesses to offer something awesome for the community.

Build a Prize Pack

• It opens up new markets to target.

• It allows you to theme your campaign to suit particular demographics of users.

• It also makes it easier to partner with the right companies, brands or influencers.

• You drive the overall prize value up, which creates more desire.

• Tier your prizes so more Entrants win something

Chris’s Outreach Email

Chris created a simple email script that he used to contact his pre-qualified list of brands.

Hey XXX,

We have a big Backpacking giveaway lined up for early next month with insert company A and insert company B. These usually result in several thousand social shares. It will look similar to this insert link to last giveaway.

We’ll handle all of the setup. Just looking for a product contribution and a push on your end.

Please let me know if you want the insert category slot asap!

Cheers,

Chris, Founder greenbelly.co

Once a brand replied, Chris agreed the details with them, including what they’d contribute and whether entry data or Actions would be shared.

Settle these with each partner first:

• Will partners get Entrants’ emails? If so, say so in your T&Cs

• Are partners required to share the campaign to a specific schedule or not?

• Will partners get their own Actions in the widget?

Chris kept the emails and let partners promote the giveaway however they liked.

Many posted about it.

Ask partners to send the giveaway to their mailing lists.

Hiking, Biking, Backpacking

Prize packs and working with partners allow you to think about targeting specific types of users by theming your campaigns.

By April 2016 Greenbelly had run 4 giveaways for different audiences, including biking, hiking and backpacking.

Each audience type allows Chris to reach out to different brands and explore different avenues for marketing.

Viral Share and the Right Audience

Viral Share gives every Entrant their own link. They share it to a network or copy it, and get bonus entries when a friend enters through it.

With Viral Share on, ask yourself:

• How badly does the user want to win your prize?

• Is this something I’m happy to share with my close network?

• How unique is it?

• If shared will it reach a similar audience? Or will it be too broad and get lost in the noise?

• Will referred users convert at the same rate or better than normal entrants?

Chris made each prize pack specific to one hobby, so hikers would share it with hikers and cyclists with cyclists.

A $100 Amazon gift card appeals to everyone, so a share reaches nobody in particular.

Run Your Own E-Commerce Giveaway

Start from the template below.